The air traffic controller then contacts the American Airlines to ask if they’d also seen a UFO, and while he initially replies no, he radios back minutes later.

They were convinced it wasn't another plane, but didn't know what it could be. Photo: Fox

“Yeah, something just passed over us,” the American Airlines pilot says, “Like a… I don't know what it was, but it was at least 2,000 to 3,000 feet above us.”

“Yeah it passed right over the top of us… It was just really beaming light or had a big reflection and several thousand feet above us, going the opposite direction.”

The trio discussed the possibility of it being a weather or Google balloon, but seemed unconvinced that it was either.

A friend of the Learjet pilot said the light was too bright to determine what the UFO was. Photo: Fox

The US Federal Aviation Administration was likewise unable to provide an explanation and says in a statement, “other than the brief conversation between two aircraft, the controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area.”

A colleague of the Learjet pilot was able to provide more detail after speaking to him, and tells Fox News, “Whatever it was was so overwhelmingly bright, he could not determine signature or profile on whatever it was.

“It’s like your fast asleep, it’s in the middle of the night and somebody shines a lightbulb right in your face, you can’t see anything other than that bright light.”